Hello from Indiana
New bow hunter here, and I need some advise, tips, or whatever you've got. Iv'e been planning on hunting this year since last winter. Done the research...when, where, and how kinda stuff. Practiced shooting all summer long. I can get it in the kill zone easily up to about 40 yards now. Scouted a public FWA a couple of times late fall. In my mind it looked like a deer paradise. Lots of large heavily wooded areas, several food plots, and several small watering holes. Found several scrapes and rubs, so I picked out a couple of places that I thought would be good to set up a stand and a few more for a ground blind that were not good for a stand. Talked to the Ranger, he indicated that there was very little pressure during bow season. Sounded great to me. (Last time out only 5 hunters signed in that day) Set up my stand 3 weeks before opening day. Washed all of my clothes in scent eliminating detergent, showered in scent eliminating soaps,got to the FWA, sprayed scent eliminating spray on my gear, put cover scent on my boots, slipped into my stand or ground blind about an hour before legal hunting time and waited. I've done this once or twice a week for the past 4 weeks and I haven't even seen a deer, let alone get a clean shot. I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but how about a "visual". I've tried attracting scents, calls, rattles,... nothing. What am I doing wrong here? Are the deer here completely nocturnal? I know that they are here, I've seen fresh tracks every time out. And I've heard them running off as I sneak into the woods but it's too dark to see them. Any advise, support or whatever you've got would be appreciated. I don't want to be one of those guy's that go 6 or 7 years before getting my first deer.